Rise of Humanity

Chapter 124 - The Key

I suppose the death of the Fengsha Island Lord’s son would surely cause a commotion?

Zhong Yue suddenly stopped, he then turned back while thinking in his heart, Fengsha Island Lord’s son was killed, Feng Gu City Lord’s daughter is dead. Surely, these two monster lords wouldn’t simply let sleeping dogs lie. The seals on Black Mountain barred any other Qi Practitioners from entry other than the Rebirth ones. If the two lords sent their Rebirth level Qi Practitioners, they would still be able to find out who killed their children.

A scorching sun appeared behind him, the blazing conflagration burned vigorously, incinerating the bodies of Senior Martial Lu, Zhu Xian’er, and the other monster Qi Practitioners. Soon, they were nothing but an indistinguishable pile of ash.

And the marks of the battle.

Zhong Yue then proceeded to erase any traces of the battle that were left behind from his battle with Senior Martial Lu, Zhu Xian’er and the two monster Qi Practitioners. Only then, did he nod his head in satisfaction, Enn … it seems that I’m getting better with the clean-up nowadays … Ey, these are … Zhu Xian’er’s spiritual pearls! Nice stuff, there’s a total of five of them, corresponding to the five elements!

He had incinerated Zhu Xian’er’s body and found five spiritual pearls beneath the ashes, they were the Gold Spiritual Pearl, Wood Spiritual Pearl, Water Spiritual Pearl, Fire Spiritual Pearl, and Earth Spiritual Pearl. They each gleamed with kaleidoscopic rays of multicolored light - they were very fantastical in appearance.

These five spiritual pearls were bigger and larger than the one from the centipede, and the energy of the five elemental Qi in them was greater and stronger.

Zhu Xian’er cultivated these five elemental spiritual pearls, is she trying to open the Wu Xing Wheel.

Zhong Yue pondered deeply before he kept away the five spiritual pearls. After the level of Rebirth came the level of Awakening. The Yuan Shen of the Awakening Level would be known as the Combat Yuan Shen, and of the five wheels, the first that would be opened was the Wu Xing Wheel.

During the level of Rebirth, the Yuan Shen could also engage in the combats but their abilities were limited to manipulating the soul weapons, Sword Qi, or other magical items. Their potential for use in direct combat was narrow to say the least - their contribution could at most be likened to the icing on a cake; its role was merely ancillary and never crucial.

But the same cannot be said for the Yuan Shen of the Awakening Qi Practitioners, they were strong, powerful, and domineering — all this can be directly attributed to the opening of the five wheels!

Zhong Yue had seen the prowess of the Qi Practitioners that had opened the five wheels and acquired the Combat Yuan Shen. Kong Ban’s follower, Lian Shan the giant rhinoceros, was precisely one of the experts that had opened the Wu Xing Wheel. The disparity in his prowess and that of the Rebirth Qi Practitioners was like the difference between heaven and earth - they could not be mentioned in the same breath!

And this Zhu Xian’er had cultivated the five spiritual pearls, she was most probably preparing herself to ascend to the level of Awakening.

In fact, Zhong Yue had also heard of it before when he was still in the Swords Gate, the fact that most of the Qi Practitioners that had also cultivated the five elemental Sword Qi were purportedly for the express purpose of opening the Wu Xing Wheel.

There might be some other treasures left…

He searched carefully and soon, the remains of the battlefield were plundered clean. He acquired another two spiritual pearls, one of which was the Gold Spiritual Pearl and the other was the Water Spiritual Pearl. These should be the prizes Senior Martial Brother Lu and his senior martial brothers seized from the insects.

Other than that, there was still the fine and exquisite banner Zhu Xian’er had and also the soul weapons that belonged the Senior Martial Brother Lu and the two monsters.

They died way too quickly battling with Zhong Yue, not even having the chance to manipulate their soul weapons before their death.

The soul weapons of the monster Qi Practitioners were usually forged by refining the materials such as the mystic gold, darksteels and the others into their body parts. For example, that Senior Martial Brother Lu whose deer horns were tempered as his soul weapons could not only be manipulated like the soul weapons, but could also be placed in an array formation that can be augmented like the totem pillars.

As for the other two Qi Practitioners, one had forged his tail into his soul weapon and the other one was a sky creature that tempered his feathers into steel structured.

All of these soul weapons were just part of their bodies. Other than the Gold Qi in them, there was still the essence of the monster beasts, one that he could harvest and cultivate into the beast Sword Qi. But he already had the beast god inner core, hence, he had little desire for the beast essence in the soul weapons as they were of little use to him. However, the Gold Qi in the soul weapons, on the other hand, was quite valuable.

With these soul weapons and the Gold Spiritual Pearl, my Gold Sword Qi can be raised to new heights! While the other two Water Spiritual Pearls, one Earth Spiritual Pearl and one Fire Spiritual Pearl … they can all be harvested into the Sword Qi, cultivated into the five elemental Sword Qi to pave the foundation for the opening of Wu Xing Wheel! Ey? How is this token not incinerated yet?

Zhong Yue curiously grasped a token from the pile of ashes of Zhu Xian’er. The token was engraved with marvelous-looking totem carvings that were fresh and novel to his eyes, different from any other totem patterns he had seen before. They looked more like the ones from the insect race, the engravings intersected to eventually form the image of a strange and peculiar looking mother insect environed by the five deadly venoms.

The mother insect was an arthropod with tentacles, large pincers, tail hooks, cicada wings, arms and a skull head like a triangular flatiron. It was built with a precarious and eerie air!

Zhong Yue cast a gaze at it and a surge of chilliness rattled down his spine. He could feel the evil and ghastly air in the token.

“Xin Huo, take a look at this, are these the totem patterns of the insect race?”

Xin Huo flew out from Zhong Yue’s psyche ocean, landed on the token and inspected it thoroughly, “This is indeed the totem patterns of the insect race, even more so, they belong to the godly insects. This token, it must’ve been given to Zhu Xian’er by the big guy that crawled out of Black Mountain secret realm. Judging from the totem carvings, this must be a key. Look at the Five Venom totems beside it, the carvings are incomplete with half of it missing. This token would have to be placed in a notch. The Five Venom totem carvings will complete as they merge with the other half on the door, thereby opening the door!”

Zhong Yue looked at it carefully and realized it too, he beseeched in curiosity, “Key? Zhu Xian’er brought this key over, what’s the door she was trying to open?”

He then kept the key away and picked out the little poison banner. Once his psyche entered into the banner, a surge of poisonous gas billowed out, morphing into all sorts of poisonous insects that swarmed the air. And as he withdrew his psyche, the poisonous insects dispersed back to the poisonous gas and returned to the little banner.

It’s only a normal soul weapon, but worth looking into. My skills only fit in the scope of close-quarters combat skills, defensive skills and Sword Qi. I am precisely lacking such an arcane and peculiar skill.

Zhong Yue thought to himself, the little banner’s attacks were quite odd, the poisonous gas was intangible. Which made it very hard to guard against, even the Xuan Wu Gold Spirit Shield could not ward off the poisonous gas, and neither could the Sword Qi eradicate the poisonous insects.

The fundamental tenets that underlie such a cabalistic item were worth investing time to investigate.

The Sword Qi was strong in attacks but lacked flexibility. This was very evident as the Sword Qi could not fend off the little banner’s attacks. It could only be warded off its attacks due to the moonlights.

However, Zhong Yue had to give up after studying it for a few moments. The little banner was only this flexible because of the skills and totem carvings of the insect race. Without the appropriate skills, it would be nearly impossible to comprehend the abstrusity in the totem patterns. The time required and the results acquired would be disproportionate!

This little banner belonged to Zhu Xian’er, if I were to ever use it for myself, it is bound to be recognized by someone, at which point, the Feng Gu City Lord would be able to discover the fact that I am his daughter’s murderer!

Chi Chi Chi——

With a thought, the Sword Qi gushed out and eviscerated the little banner, not even leaving behind a single trace of its existence!

The 【Monster God Ming King Art】 is very important but so are the five elemental spiritual pearls in the insects. If I can gather more of these spiritual pearls, it’d be easier for me to open the Wu Xing Wheel in the near future!

Zhong Yue strode forward while he extracted the Earth Qi from the Earth Spiritual Pearl and cultivated them into the Earth Sword Qi. He thought in his heart, Moreover, my prowess will also increase as the five elemental Sword Qi gets stronger, my survivability in the Black Mountain secret realm will be greater. For now, my main goal is to collect the five elemental spiritual pearls!

He concealed himself under the shadow of the woods. Soon, he could hear a strange voice as if a swarm of silkworms was gnawing on the mulberry leaves. Zhong Yue held his breath and snuck over towards the source. What entered his sights was a tall skeletal frame that was a few hundred feet tall. There were still plenty of meat and flesh hanging on the bones while countless silver ants of only an inch long crawled over its carcass, devouring its body.

It was a monster, most probably the winged tiger, or more commonly known as the flying tiger — one of the rarest mutated species of the monster race, very dreadful and ferocious. Its fierce roar was purported to be capable of reaching the heavens.

Zhong Yue pondered deeply in silence before becoming extremely shocked all of a sudden. He had seen this flying tiger before, he was the one that had attained the abstrusity in the prologue of 【Monster God Ming King Art】 at the same time as King Teng and the others. However, the flying tiger had kept a hand in the shadows, refraining from being the first to stand out, and only acting once Yu Xuanji and another monster had passed the test, so as to reduce the attention he would draw from the other experts!

This flying tiger, he is definitely one of the experts in the level of Rebirth and yet he was eaten away by these silver ants, so these silver ants must be a very strong existence of the insect race!

Just as the thought crossed his mind, the silver ants suddenly extended their miniature wings and buzzed through the air and into the woods. Soon, the silver ants’ claws were very carefully clamped onto a clump of meat as they dragged it out of the trees.

The meatball was also a kind of ant, but it was way bigger than the ordinary silver ant, it was about a man’s height and with a length of about three to five men. The normal silver ants were covered in thick metals with the engravings of the insect race totem carvings whereas this giant ant, while it was also covered in metal, it was gold in color as opposed to the silver of the other ants. The totem carvings that were engraved on it were also much more complicated.

The silver ants carried the giant ant over and placed it on top of the flying tiger’s head, in a lackadaisical manner it opened its sharp teeth and —Ka-cha!— it sunk its teeth into the flying tiger’s gigantic head, sucking the brain juices away.

Watching the scene, Zhong Yue slowly and cautiously receded back. A few dozens of silver ants were still manageable but there were at least a thousand over of them right there devouring the flying tiger. He would only be the next to suffer the same tragic fate if he were to recklessly step out!

The flying tiger’s body is covered in wounds, some are thin and narrow like the cicada wings, left behind as the silver ants slashed their wings over; while some other wounds were nibbled by the silver ants’ sharp teeth. Provoking these flying ant swarms would be like fighting with nearly two thousand flying swords, not even the Xuan Wu Gold Spirit Shield would be able to block them!

Walking in the woods, he met another group of golden colored silkworms, built with four wings. Their flying speed was immense and they also moved in swarms. Not only that, he also saw a group of locusts, these insects lived in large groups. They would pounce and devour any living being that had the misfortune of encountering them. With Zhong Yue alone, he would never stand a chance against them!

Thankfully, the swarms of ants, silkworms, and locusts were rarely seen. Most of the time, he would only come across the straggling lone insects, which he would gladly kill and harvest the spiritual pearls that came to him. Within this period of time, Zhong Yue had already fully harvested the Gold Qi in the soul weapons, and his Earth Sword Qi was also coming into shape, turning into an earthly yellow six-arris edged Sword Qi while carrying a heavy and thick aura.

As more and more insects died by his hands, the number of spiritual pearls in his hands gradually increased. Right at this time, there was already a monster Qi Practitioner that came to the monster god Ming King’s palace. His body was well built, slim and slender in stature and carrying the air of a nobleman and dressed in a verdant green robe. King Teng raised his head and gazed at the palace before him.

Soon, there were another few monster Qi Practitioners that came after him, they were all the strongest of the monster Qi Practitioners that entered the realm.

Standing outside of the palace, they gazed at the path road that entered their eyes, and yet, no one dared to stride into it.

“Hahaha, it seems like I’ll be the first to enter!” All of a sudden, a figure dashed out from the woods and rushed into the palace.

Chi——

Just as he stepped on the stairs to enter the palace, he had no control of himself and morphed back into his true form, a mountainous beast. And right after, it was as if an ocean had flooded into his body, causing his body to expanding out like a balloon as blood flowed out of his apertures like cascading waterfalls. In a trice, the whole floor was painted in the sanguine color of blood-red, and what remained was only a lone and desolate beast hide.

“How appallingly strong are these seals…”